Payments

All samples submitted become the property of the AHDC upon receipt of submissions. The submitter is financially responsible for all testing requested or added to the original submission that is necessary to reach a diagnosis. The AHDC does not accept samples submitted by an owner where no veterinarian is involved. Any exception to this submission policy requires prior approval from the AHDC.

Payments of all charges are the responsibility of the submitting veterinarian. Charges are billed on a monthly invoice. We bill only when all of the testing on a submitted case has been finalized.

Please remit payments to the following address:

Animal Health Diagnostic Center
PO Box 6491
Ithaca NY 14851-6491

Note: Sending your payment to the AHDC Courier or USPS address rather than to this PO Box address will significantly delay the processing of your payment. This address is to be used ONLY for remitting payments. DO NOT submit samples to this address or there will be a delay in testing!

Be sure to return the top third of the invoice with your payment and reference your invoice number on your check to facilitate proper credit of your account. The AHDC accepts payment via cash, check and credit card. We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. Credit card payments can be managed through our online portal. To ensure proper management of your account records, your account number must be used in all correspondence with the AHDC.

Monthly Auto-Payment Plan

The Monthly Auto-Payment Plan is a service we offer through a third-party service provider to securely process credit card payments for balances due on a monthly basis. Enrolling in autopay helps to ensure that your payment is never received late. Those clients who wish to enroll may do so by logging into the online portal and providing your credit card information in your account. "This account is enrolled in autopay" will be reflected on your monthly invoice, and the credit card payment will be processed on the first business day following the end of each month. Should your payment be refused by your bank for any reason, an automatic email notification will be sent.

In the event your credit card account becomes compromised or a new expiration date is issued or you need to change the card for any reason, it is your responsibility to notify us of change(s) and update your information in the portal. Should you wish to cancel your Monthly Auto-Payment Plan, you may do so in writing to our Billing Services at ahdcbilling@cornell.edu or by removing your credit card from your account settings on the client portal.

The AHDC Credit and Collections Policy

Payment Terms

All AHDC invoices are due 30 days from the date of the invoice. The billing system will issue a new invoice number each month regardless of the nature of the balance.

Finance Charges

Balances that are 90 days or more overdue will be subject to a 3.5% finance charge, calculated on the 26th of each month on the balance due at that time. This charge will be added to the outstanding account balance. Notification of balances past due will be provided monthly. 

Penalties

Active accounts with an outstanding balance over 150 days past due are placed on Credit Hold. Any pending test results will not be released until the full balance due is paid or a satisfactory payment arrangement has been made. Active accounts with overdue balances will be unable to submit future samples until payment has been received. 

If you have a billing concern, please contact Billing Services at 607-253-3951 or 866-930-2432 to address it prior to the invoice due date. We can also be reached by e-mail at ahdcbilling@cornell.edu.

NYS Contract Case Pricing

The New York State Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory and Animal Health Diagnostic Center (AHDC) under contract with the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets provides reduced cost diagnostic testing to New York State livestock and poultry industries to aid in early detection and surveillance of diseases that may threaten the State’s livestock, poultry and public health. For more detail please call the Animal Health Diagnostic Center at 607-253-3900. See NYS Contract Case Submission Form and NYS Contract Case Pricing.

Regular Charges

All tests that do not qualify for subsidization through the Animal Health Diagnostic Center's contract with the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets will be charged at rates listed in the Test & Fee Schedule.

$6 Accession Fee

An explanation of the costs associated with our accession fee and a description of why this fee is necessary are outlined below. If you have any questions about a particular accession, please contact the lab directly at 607-253-3900.

Why an Accession Fee?

In the operation of a diagnostic laboratory, one can apportion costs into two major categories: the cost of doing a given test (supply costs + labor) and the cost of delivering the service to the client. The latter category can be simply defined as overhead – non test related expenses. To recover the overhead costs, one can simply boost the cost of the individual test by a factor that on average recovers all of the overhead costs. Most commercial laboratories use this strategy. The other way to recover the overhead costs is to assess a fee that separately recognizes these real costs. The AHDC has chosen the latter process. Since we are assessing a fee/accession – not individual test, we believe it is appropriate to outline what that fee is "buying."

The standard overhead expenses at the AHDC are related to the Receiving unit that processes the samples and paperwork associated with a given accession, the Medical Records unit that assures the integrity of the information associated with the accession, IT support that keeps the software and hardware operating, the Billing unit that monitors the accuracy of the charges, and the utilities and maintenance of the facility. These types of charges exist in all diagnostic lab operations. For the AHDC, we believe we have several "valued added" services that are not reflected in standard test fees. We have a Regulatory Affairs unit that is charged with monitoring all samples that have special needs such as exports or surveillance programs. Not infrequently the efforts of this unit detect issues with export testing associated with an inappropriate test request or with a timeline that cannot be met. Many an export has been "saved" by their efforts but a fee for this service is not directly assessed.

The other major "valued added" service is our Veterinary Support Services unit. This group of professionals is involved with all aspects of the accession request from the assessment of whether the correct sample was submitted to the interpretation of the test results in the context of the clinical event. For this service, numerous phone calls are made (10-15% of all accessions require contact with the submitting practice) to ensure that the correct test(s) is done to avoid unnecessary charges or delays in result reporting. The labor costs for this type of oversight is substantial, but again no direct fee is being assessed. We have chosen to put all of these costs into one simple fee so that it is easy to determine the exact cost of an accession. Regardless how we choose to collect fees to pay for our operations, we will always strive for our clients to get their "money's worth" for the services we provide.